September 12, 2021 Children’s Sermon – James 3:1-12- A Blessing or a Curse

By Lois Parker Edstrom

Suggestion: Provide food that would demonstrate the various types of tastes – sweet, salty, bitter or sour, if appropriate to your situation.

Just for fun: Tongue twisters.

Here is something that might surprise you: I read on the internet that the blue whale, the earth’s largest animal, has a mouth so big that one hundred people could fit inside. Its tongue is so large that it weighs as much as an elephant.*

Your own mouth and tongue are also amazing. Your mouth allows you to speak and sing. It allows you to taste and swallow food. It allows you to smile or frown or kiss your favorite person.

You have about ten thousand taste buds in your mouth. Most of them are on your tongue, but there are also taste buds under your tongue, on your cheeks and the roof of your mouth. Those taste buds make it possible for you to tell the difference between foods that are sweet or salty, bitter or sour.

All of this is quite wonderful, but the Bible teaches us that the tongue can also be a dangerous part of our body. When we speak, we have the choice to say positive words or hurtful words. If we use hurtful words we may injure another person. Once said, those hurtful words can’t be taken back.

We can use our tongue to praise God or curse God. Listen to this Bible verse: “Out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so” (3:10).

Think about the words that come out of your mouth. Choose words that honor others and honor God. Make your words a blessing!